An integral part of my Home Theater PC build is the antenna, and when I first wrote about the hardware, I wasn't even aware how complicated things would become in this area. The RCA ANT1251, which is little more than a pair of glorified rabbit ears, did not perform well at all in my house. I quickly abandoned it for the Terk HDTVa, which I found delivered a decent signal from my attic, and I was satisfied for several weeks.

That was until things started to heat up. Around the end of April, as the days started to get longer and hotter, the temperature in my attic apparently exceeded the operating range of the Terk unit, and the signal became severely degraded on virtually all channels. So it was time to begin searching for a better alternative.

During my initial research, I had turned up an instructional video on YouTube for making your own HD antenna out of coat hangers. So I figured why not? I'd give it a shot. I had all of the materials available, so it wouldn't cost me anything. The final product performed very well for what was -- a free antenna made of coat hangers -- but it wasn't consistent enough for my liking, even after some modifications suggested by other sites around the 'net, and it also could not pull in one very essential channel: PBS. If you have young kids, you surely know what I mean.

Back to the drawing board. I briefly considered alternate DIY designs, with more sophisticated materials, but I was tired of experimenting at this point, and I just wanted something that worked. So it was time to splurge on the Cadillac of over-the-air antennas, the Channel Master 4228. I even ordered a Winegard Pre-Amplifier, to counteract the signal loss of the fifty foot run of cable from the attic, and the splitter I am using to feed multiple TVs. This seems to be the winning combination for my configuration, although I've only been using it a few days, so we'll see if the late summer heat has any further detrimental effects.

If this doesn't work, the only step left is a rooftop installation, which I am hoping to avoid -- not only for the expense, but the external appearance. However, if that is the only way to get a decent digital signal, I suppose it's worth it. Anything is better than going back to cable or satellite.

The Lenovo N5901 wireless keyboard is a small handheld remote with a full QWERTY keyboard and built-in trackball. It seems well suited for home theater (HTPC) applications, however, it has a number of drawbacks.

The first, and most noticeable, is that in the home theater environment, there is a desire to control light levels, so it is typically pretty dark. The keyboard on this remote is not backlit, so it is impossible to type on it in the dark. Touch typing is not an option either, as the remote is too small and must be held in your hands.

Other annoyances include the fact that the keyboard has a power switch rather than being smart enough to power itself off when idle. So this means if you forget to power it off, it will sit all night with the trackball LED illuminated until the batteries go dead. I've also had some issues with the purported 30 foot range on this remote, which is surprising, since I plugged the USB receiver into the front of my HTPC and I am sitting less than 5 feet from it. But I still find it necessary to hold the remote up in the air slightly for the signal to transmit.

Overall, I am not pleased with this offering (glad I only paid half price for it), and will continue looking for better alternatives, as I await the release of the Boxee Remote around Christmas time.

A few weeks ago I discovered a very cool and very useful Boxee feature of which I was previously unaware. On the right side of the Boxee home screen is your queue. Normally, this is populated automatically when you include shows in "My Shows", or when you add an individual video that you find while browsing within Boxee on your TV. But, what if you find a cool video while browsing the web on your computer, and you want to remember to watch it later when you're kicked back on the couch? Well, that's simple. Just drag the Boxee Bookmarklet to your browser window, and the next time you are on a page with a video you want to watch, you click the button that says "Add to Boxee" and like magic, the next time you run Boxee, the video shows up in your queue. It's so cool!

It's been about six months since we bought this memory foam mattress at Sam's. At the time, I read every single comment on the page, left by dozens (if not hundreds) of people who had purchased the same mattress. They all expressed the same apprehension about buying a mattress online, without ever having laid on it, but in the end, they all did it anyway, keeping their fingers crossed that they would not live to regret it. There were only a handful of truly negative comments about the mattress -- overwhelmingly the owners of this mattress were happy with it. I can now add myself to that list.

We have been very pleased with how comfortable this mattress is, and for a memory foam mattress of this size, you certainly cannot beat the price. The only question now is how long will it last? This mattress is not flippable, and very few of the commenters had been sleeping on theirs for more than a few months, so it's hard to say how durable the foam is, or whether we will end up needing to use the product's 10-year warranty. In the meantime, I've never slept better, and I don't wake up with a back ache, like I did most mornings with our old mattress.

[This is Part IV of a series on building your own HTPC]

Once you've assembled the hardware, and collected the software, it is time to begin your install. You can expect this entire process to take between one and two hours to complete. Please follow these instructions:

1. Install Windows
   It is assumed that you partitioned your hard drive as specified in the previous post. When the Windows install is complete, don't forget to format the D: drive with 64K block size. You will also need to disable User Account Control, and the Windows firewall to save yourself some headaches later on.
   
2. Install Hauppauge software
   Insert the CD that came with the Hauppauge tuner, choose your language and then install both the drivers and WinTV (although WinTV may actually be optional, I'm not sure) and then reboot
   
3. Install Gigabyte motherboard drivers
   Download the latest drivers from the Gigabyte web site. It is assumed that you have already done this on a different machine with internet access, since without the LAN driver installed, you will not be able to connect with the HTPC. So download these drivers in advance and either burn them to a CD, or put them on a thumb drive. Specifically, you will need the Realtek HD Audio, which provides Dolby Pro Logic II support through both the HDMI connection and the optical digital audio port (if your receiver has one). You will also need the chipset driver package which includes the ATI Radeon 4200 HD video driver necessary if you are driving a true 1080p HD display. Install both of these drivers and then reboot.
   
4. Install GBPVR
   Early on, I had some issues with GBPVR crashing. If while configuring it, you run a channel scan, and for some reason it does not detect all of your local channels and you force a rescan, there is a bug that causes it to crash when you start mapping the channels to your Electronic Programming Guide. I recommend you join the GBPVR forum. There is a wealth of support information there which is publicly available, however, the search function is a lot easier to use if you are a registered user and logged in. The Boxee forum uses the same software, so the same is true for it. I recommend joining both.

   I also recommend joining Schedules Direct and paying the $20 annual fee for their TV guide data. There are a couple of free sites out there, but I can't vouch for the quality of their data, and I can say that Schedules Direct is already integrated into GBPVR, so setting it up to pull your TV listings every night is a snap.

   Download GBPVR (I am assuming version 1.4.7) and install it, and follow these instructions to configure it.

   Now install the Visual J# redistributable, followed by the WizRecordingRename utility, which you will install into the GBPVR folder. This utility allows automatic renaming of the recording files that GBPVR creates. This is important because Boxee will automatically catalog the recordings and download IMDB data about them, but only if the files follow Boxee's particular naming convention. Once you have installed these two items, copy the PostProcessing.bat and the WizRenameRecording.xml files into the GBPVR folder.
   

5. Install Boxee
   In order for Netflix to work within Boxee, you will need to install Silverlight, so do that first. Also, to make sure you are using the version of Flash that Boxee expects, go to http://www.boxee.tv/flash and install it from there. I can tell you how critical it is that you get the right version of Flash. There are a lot of versions out there, but only one that makes Boxee work. Lastly, install the Boxee beta (I am assuming version 0.9.20.10711).
   
6. Install EventGhost
   I struggled with getting the Hauppauge-included MCE remote to work correctly. The source of the problem is that the IR receiver plugs directly into the Hauppauge card, and is not a USB device, so it uses special drivers and Windows does not natively recognize the events that are generated when you push buttons on the remote. As it turns out, you don't need anything beyond the drivers on the Hauppauge CD. You just need to disable the IR program that gets installed with WinTV, by removing it from the Startup folder, and then install EventGhost. Run EventGhost and go to File -> Options and set it to autostart and minimize to the system tray when closed. Then copy the HTPC.xml file to your Windows 7 user folder and load it into Eventghost (File -> Open...) -- it then becomes your default config file and will be loaded automatically every time you start the machine. I have it set to autostart Boxee too, but you can remove that if you like.
   

[Continued in Part V, The Results...]

[This is Part III of a series on building your own HTPC]

I started out thinking this would be a Linux-based PC, but two things changed my mind. First, I've written before about my travails with Linux. I want to like Linux, I really do. But I can't. Mabye I'm just not geeky enough, or maybe I'm just lazy, but configuring the guts of an operating system is not enjoyable, and I will avoid it every chance I get. If that means I buy Windows, so be it. Second, and more importantly, at the time of this writing streaming Netflix movies to a Linux box was still not an option -- this was a deal-breaker.

So I began with an old OEM copy of Windows XP for this build. Let me say that you can get this build to work with XP SP2 (I know because I had it working, but then got lazy about my configuration management and wound up in tweak hell that I couldn't seem to back out of), but you might be better off avoiding the hassles, and investing in an upgrade to Windows 7. This is the path I chose, and for the purposes of this guide, I am assuming the Windows 7 OS. But if you choose to go the XP route, I'll just point out that SATA support is not native in XP. So you will need to obtain SATA drivers from the motherboard manufacturer, and create either an install floppy with these drivers, or a slipstreamed XP install disk with the drivers integrated. I won't go into details here on how to do this, but I used a free tool called NLite, and it was relatively painless. It even allows you to remove all of the unnecessary Windows components, and I was able to get my install time down to about 18 minutes.

An important thing to keep in mind when installing Windows is that you will enjoy better performance by creating at least two partitions and putting Windows on one and storing your media on the other. I partitioned the 500GB drive into a 20GB C: drive and a 480GB D: drive. After your install, the first thing you should do is format the 480GB partition with a 64K block size (4K is the default). The larger block size lends itself to fewer and less frequent drive accesses, which will prevent jerky or choppy video when you play back recorded HD content, and drive fragmentation becomes less of a problem as well.

There are two main software components that you will be installing and configuring: Boxee and GBPVR. My goal was to integrate these two as much as possible since they are both free, relatively mature, products with more or less mutually exclusive, but highly complimentary, features. GB-PVR is, as the name would suggest, a Personal Video Recorder that uses the TV tuner card to record over-the-air television to the hard drive, and Boxee provides everything else from my list of requirements. These two packages were not designed to work together, but I've found that they can be made to play nice with each other, and perform satisfactorily -- at least until something better comes along.

One caveat right up front: if you install Windows 7 and think you might want to play around with Windows Media Center, do that first. When you're done playing with it, reinstall Windows and never run it again because when you run it you will be prompted to install all manner of helper apps that Media Center needs to function, and one or more of them prevent Boxee from working correctly. I learned this the hard way. Let me add that I like Media Center. I like it a lot. The user interface is the slickest and most sophisticated I've seen, configuration was painless, and it does everything! With one exception: the Internet TV module is severely limited and was enough to convince me that Boxee was a better choice. Although Boxee is still in beta testing, all you have to do is install it and play with it for a few minutes to see that it has far greater potential for future expansion.

[Continued in Part IV, The Install...]

[This is Part II of a series on building your own HTPC]

Let me start by saying that I did not compile this entire list of hardware through trial and error. Most of it came from Jay Taylor's excellent blog over at AMD, and a big thanks to him for starting me off in the right direction. I bought all the necessary parts for the base system following the links he provided. This includes the chassis, motherboard, memory, CPU, hard drive, and optical drive. Beyond that, I started experimenting. Buying my own tuner cards, remote controls, antennas, etc., and returning a lot of it until I found the right mix.

While evaluating antennas, I tried an RCA amplified antenna that cost about $20. I was unimpressed. The signal was strong enough in a few locations, but it was generally a crap shoot. I then considered going to the other extreme and purchasing a Channel Master 4221, which got great reviews everywhere I looked. I even entertained the idea of building my own out of coat hangers. Both of these still might be future options, but in the end, a Terk amplified antenna in the $40 range seemed to serve my purposes. For those of you who have not yet jumped on the Digital TV bandwagon, I'll point out that with the transition to digital, the channel numbers of your local stations have likely also changed. Most have migrated to UHF in the 20-40 range, so don't expect to find them in their old locations.

My choice of tuner card was driven by both positive user reviews and the strongly desired feature of a dual-tuner on a single card. Not only was the Hauppauge 2250 cheaper than buying two separate tuner cards, but it takes less power and space inside the PC chassis. I also don't have to worry about a splitter to feed two antenna leads because the splitter is internal to the card. This is a very attractive design. The card worked very well with the included WinTV software, however, I did struggle to get the included Windows MCE remote to work. I will cover this in more detail in my next post on software, but the problem is that the IR receiver plugs directly into the Hauppauge card, rather than a USB port, so the included drivers do not make the remote work exactly like a Microsoft branded remote would.

When it comes time to assemble your rig, I am assuming you know how to put a PC together (if not, you will find a bunch of step-by-step assembly videos on Jay's blog), but here are a few lessons I learned that you might find helpful. The chassis is pretty small and cramped inside, so you will likely have to temporarily remove the power supply (it's only a few screws) in order to mount the hard drive. The hard drive will come with a SATA cable that has a right-angle connector on one end. You will want to use this one as the motherboard connectors are pretty hard to get to once the hard drive is mounted. The power supply has a 2x2 power cable for the CPU (which attaches to the motherboard near the CPU socket), but the connector is a 2x4. Don't let this confuse you (like it did me), just plug it into half of the 2x4 connector -- it should only fit one way, so you can't get it wrong.

So here's your shopping list. I'm providing links to all of the hardware below for your convenience. (Disclaimer: this web site and the author are not affiliated with Newegg.com in any way. These links are provided as a convenience. Feel free to shop around!)

Item	Part Description	Price
Chassis	HEC 7K09 (power supply included)	$54.99
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H	$94.99
CPU	AMD Athlon II X2 240 dual-core (cooler included)	$60.99
RAM	Kingston 2GB of DDR3 1066	$43.99
Hard drive	Western Digital 500GB Green	$54.99
DVD drive	Lite-On DVD ROM	$17.99
TV Tuner	Hauppauge DVR 2250 (MCE remote included)	$129.99
Antenna	Terk Amplified Indoor HD Antenna	$37.99
Total		$495.92

[Continued in Part III, The Software...]

I've been a Netflix user for many years. I was intrigued when they began offering some of their movies in streaming format directly from their web site -- I think it's easy to see that this is the future of entertainment content distribution -- but I'm personally not a fan of sitting in front of my computer to watch long videos. One of these days I'll get around to either building my own HTPC, or upgrading our TiVo, but in the meantime, Santa brought a fancy new gadget that bridges the gap quite nicely.

It's called a Roku and it started life as nothing more than a set-top box that allowed streaming of Netflix content. It works with either a wired or wireless internet connection, and automatically adjusts the video quality based on the connection speed that is available, but even over wireless a high quality picture is possible (even HD). This latest incarnation of the device has expanded the number of sources from which streaming content is available. Netflix is joined by several other providers, including Amazon's Video on Demand service, as well as Major League Baseball. There are several other lesser-known providers available in the Roku "Channel Store" that one can subscribe to, including one of my favorites (that I already subscribe to through TiVo) Revision3.

The only gripe I have with the box is that I wish it allowed you to point at any internet-based content source, perhaps by entering an RSS feed, or something similar. Maybe this will be offered in a future version of the firmware. Apart from that, I've been very happy with the ease of the initial configuration (and the linking to my Netflix account) and the quality of the video streams. I also like that if you have to stop a movie in the middle, it remembers your place so you can resume watching later. If you are already a Netflix subscriber, there are few reasons not to buy this box and bring the mailbox shuffle to an end. Shipping movies by mail is soooo last decade.

Santa brought me DJ Hero for the Wii this year for Christmas, and I have to say it's the surprise hit of all of my new toys. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. In the ancient past, I spent time both in the club scene and as a DJ, so it has a certain appeal to me, but I'll concede that it's not for everyone. Having spent some time playing Rock Band at a friend's house, I can say that DJ Hero is quite a bit harder to learn (even at the easy level) than playing guitar -- from a technical standpoint, there's a lot more to "two turntables and microphone" than "a beat-up six-string." But the music is great -- top quality mixes, by big-name DJs -- and the game play is addictive as you try to master the higher levels. Oh yeah, and I got mad skillz!

I'm lucky to work at a place that doesn't mind its employees listening to music (on headphones) while they work. Years ago, I carried an actual MP3 Player to work everyday, but I quickly outgrew the limited storage capacity, so I ultimately transitioned to carrying a simple USB drive. The drive also served as a convenient courier for documents and other non-music content. However, installing a suitable MP3 player on my work computer was not really an option. I had an old copy of a very useful and lightweight MP3 player called Sonique, along with a sizable collection of visual plugins, and to my delight it could be installed on the USB drive and run from there. I was very pleased with this solution, and for years it served me well.

However, a few weeks ago, for no apparent reason, Sonique stopped running on my work computer. I tried several remedies to no avail. So it was time to seek out a new alternative. I settled on Winamp, and I have to say I am very pleased with its performance. With some instructions I found in the Winamp forums, I easily installed it on my USB drive and it runs very well from there. The player is packed with features that I will probably never use and there is an army of developers out there writing new plugins for it all the time. I even found one that will let me control the player with my Dell multimedia keyboard at work (drivers for which are notoriously difficult to find)! I'm going to miss Sonique's slick visuals, but I have to recommend Winamp to anyone who transports their tunes on a lowly thumb drive.

It was time to retire my Palm PDA, but replacing it was something of a challenge since no one really makes PDAs anymore that aren't part of a smartphone. I'm still happy with my Virgin Mobile service, and you can't beat the price, so I didn't really want to upgrade to a new phone.

The best compromise I could find was, believe it or not, an MP3 player. But Apple's iPod series is really more than just an MP3 player, and the iPod Touch is really more than just an iPod. It's been called an iPhone without the phone, which is true, but what it is really is simply astonishing. I have a lot of gadgets, but this is the first time I can honestly say that I was astonished by a piece of technology. I ran the battery dead playing with it the first time, with my mouth literally agape. I could not believe that I was listening to my music while surfing the web on a device that is not much bigger or bulkier than a credit card.

I won't continue singing its praises here -- there are plenty of Apple fanboys on the internet to do that for me -- but I will mention a few warts that I've noticed. First, and foremost, I am not at all pleased that Apple chose to charge its Touch customers for the firmware upgrade to version 3.0. Especially since the upgrade has been available for months -- why aren't these products sold with the latest firmware? iPhone users get the upgrade for free, but iPod Touch users have to pay? That is a poor business decision, in my opinion.

Second, for all of the accolades that Apple receives for their unique and functional user interfaces, I have to say that the iTunes desktop interface is not terribly user-friendly. It was not immediately apparent to me, the first time I ran it, how I am supposed to manage my music and video library on my PC -- it is also a bit annoying that I can't remove songs and videos directly from the iPod Touch.

Third, the notes app that comes with the iPod Touch is lackluster at best. I would purchase an app with more functionality, but then it won't automatically sync with my desktop. This probably isn't an annoyance for those who bought the Touch primarily as an entertainment device, but for those who are trying to replace a PDA, having a functional notes app that performs easy and reliable backups is essential.

Lastly, for some inadequately explored reason, Apple saw fit to remove one piece of valuable functionality that all previous iPod devices had: you can't use the iPod Touch as a simple USB drive! If you are willing to install some third-party apps, you can do it, but why should the user have to bother with that? I view that as a serious misstep on Apple's part.

Of course, the iPod Touch (as well as the iPhone) are all about "apps" -- Apple makes it very easy to spend your money in their App Store. But they make it equally easy to find the free apps too. As I collect apps that I find useful, I will continue to update this post with links to them here.

Stanza
An ebook reader that is surprisingly well designed for a free app. Transfering ebooks from my PC proved to be more cumbersome that it probably should be, but once they are on the device, the reading experience is very good and intuitive.

Paper Toss
This is a pretty cool game -- it's exactly what it sounds like, a physics-based game of tossing a ball of paper into a trash can. More challenging than it sounds. It would take a lot of practice to get really good at it. The free version is definitely worth downloading.

Boxed In
A fascinating and highly addictive logic puzzle.

Urbanspoon
Can't decide where to eat? Let this app take the guesswork out of it, and add a little fun. Shake your device, and see suggestions appear slot-machine style.

Facebook
If you are a Facebook user, this app is indispensable. It makes navigating the site much easier and more efficient, with the added benefit of no advertising! You can see the interface in your web browser here. You might also be interested in the "lite" version of the Facebook interface.

The Weather Channel
Get your local weather fast and even view realtime video forecasts.

Free RSS
You will not find a better RSS reader that is free.

Boxee Remote
If you have a Home Theater PC and are running Boxee, you might find this app useful. It is especially handy if you are entering text into Boxee (such as search terms) because Boxee's virtual keyboard leaves a lot to be desired (as do most).

Since we've been talking about planting a garden for quite a while now, my Earth Day gift to myself this year was a new compost bin from Envirocycle. This bin has a fairly unique design in that it's a tumbler, but the base incorporates a set of rollers that make it easy to spin the tumbler right where it sits. Some others that I've seen require you to remove the bin from its base and roll it around the yard.

We bought the unit from Amazon, and if you are thinking about purchasing one, I'd recommend you read the user comments there. I share their general concern about the flimsy latch on the door of the bin. This is a very poor (and cheap) design. I also wanted to thank one commenter for their suggestion that you keep your kitchen compost container in the freezer. This is a great idea! It keeps the smell in check and plus freezing the food accelerates the composting process.

I will say that there is an art to making compost and you have to be especially watchful of the moisture level inside the bin. Start off with equal parts dry (grass clippings, leaves, etc.) and wet (food waste) matter, and don't put any straight liquids (like coffee or tea) in the bin, or you will wind up with a soggy mess inside.

It was finally time to replace Dixie's tired old TV that she uses to watch her workout videos, so for our anniversary this year, we went shopping for a snazzy new flat screen. We went to American because they typically have the best selection in their store, and we ended up choosing the Nexus NX3203.

I had never heard of Nexus, and I was a little apprehensive about buying a brand with no reputation, especially a Chinese brand. But they apparently make computer monitors, and I couldn't find any negative revews online. You definitely get more TV for your money -- the Sony and Panasonic TVs of comparable size were at least $200 more. One curious thing about this TV is that the space on the back where the model number and serial number would normally be printed or stamped is blank.

So far we have been pleased with the operation. This model has a generous number of inputs, including HDMI, and VGA, so if you needed that kind of screen real estate, you could actually use this as a computer monitor. The picture quality is very good, although the colors don't seem quite as vibrant as some other models we looked at.

It was time to update our old magnetic spice rack and Dixie found some cool magnetic knife racks from IKEA. Combined with the containers we already had from Specialty Bottle, and this is no longer a spice rack, it's wall art!

What can I say? Two hundred gigabytes just ain't that big anymore. Western Digital is offering this series of MyBook drives in a number of different configurations, including a 500GB RAID, and the Essential Edition that I purchased featuring a 1TB partition. I bought this one on sale at Circuit City, but I guess I should have waited a few weeks for them to announce their death, I could have saved even more.

The only thing I don't like about the drive is that it doesn't have a power switch. It auto-senses whether or not your computer is on, and turns itself on and off. This is less than optimal. I prefer to control the power myself, which means I have to unplug the USB cable to turn it off. Also a word of caution if you plan to use this drive to store large files (such as movies), you will need to reformat the drive from FAT32 to NTFS.

I miss the big blue button on the front of my Maxtor that could be configured to launch your backup software, but apart from that, this is a great no-frills drive for the price.

As I wrote about earlier this year, my old phone had developed some kind of malignant growth on its display, and it was only a matter of time before it rendered the phone useless. But what do you want for $10? Virgin Mobile phones aren't the greatest out there, but they, like the service itself, are cheap and get the job done. So Santa brought me a nifty new Wildcard phone. It's designed for those who do a lot of text messaging, with its flip-open QWERTY keyboard and secondary display, and it has a decent 1 megapixel camera built into it.

I recycled my old phone using Virgin's recycling web site, which allows you to print a postage-paid mailing label and send your old phone back instead of sending it to a landfill. This is a great idea, but I have to question Virgin's level of commitment to environmental issues when every phone they sell is packaged in the dreaded and evil clamshell plastic that requires a plasma cutter to open. Make sure you remember to erase all of your personal data from the phone before you ship it back!

Santa was good to me this year. At the top of my wish list was this model from Garmin's very popular Nuvi series of GPS devices. The most notable feature on the 260w is its ability to say street names, which allows you to drive without taking your eyes off of the road. The touch screen has very good resolution, is remarkably easy to read (even in daylight), and it can display both 2D and 3D maps. Your position on the map is indicated by a customizable icon, and I like that you can choose from many different vehicles on their site and download them into the internal memory. I went with the "Burb Mobile."

This unit is excellent is for navigation while you are driving, but I was also interested in getting one that could be used for geocaching as well. I haven't actually done it yet, but it appears to be capable of this as well, with a few minor tweaks of the user preferences. Some older Garmin units need to have their firmware upgraded to allow entry of raw latitude and longitude values, but this one has that functionality right out of the box.

Lastly, I would recommend the purchase of the optional friction mount that allows the unit to sit on your dashboard, rather that suction-cupped to the windshield. The word on the street is that residue left on your windshield is a telltale sign for thieves looking to relieve you of your GPS gadgetry.

Back in July, I wrote about having a solar water heater installed. About the same time, I also had solar-powered attic vents installed by an outfit called The Energy Savings Store, and I wanted to document my experience with them for the benefit of anyone else that might be considering their services.

Overall, I was not pleased. I arranged an initial site survey with them via email. Some critical information was left out of our exchange as I was not informed ahead of time that the survey by itself would cost me $350. Now, that money would have been applied to the cost of a photovoltaic (PV) system, had I chosen to purchase one, but since I decided not to, I essentially paid $350 for them to inspect my house and tell me things I already knew. Like I had air leaks around my exterior doors, and I could use some insulation in my basement and attic. Some people might find this information worth the money, but for me, it just felt like I had been scammed. Subsequently, I made the decision to install some kind of vent fans in my attic, and I thought I might be able to apply that $350 to the cost of the install and at least get something for my money. I should have asked about that in advance, however, because as it turns out, attic fans are not eligible for that discount.

I elected to have two Solatube fans installed to replace my two existing ridge-mounted vents. A local handyman was hired to do the actual install, and he mistakenly removed the vent above our hallway bathroom. This was a stupid mistake and with a little more attention to detail it could have been avoided. But to make things worse, he did a terrible job of resealing around the vent when he put it back, so a week later when the remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through the midwest, it was raining in our bathroom, causing moderate damage to our bathroom ceiling. At roughly the same time, I noticed one of the two fans they installed was no longer working.

To their credit, they responded quickly to my report of the leak and fixed it the next day, and a replacement for the faulty fan was ordered and installed within a couple of weeks. But these issues did little to improve my initial feeling about the company, and my overall first impression of them is not good. The entire episode cost me well over a thousand dollars and my bathroom ceiling still isn't fixed. I would not recommend anyone use The Energy Savings Store.

We bought this Cambridge model swingset from Sam's last season on clearance and finally got around to assembling the beast this past weekend. If you buy one, you can plan on it taking a good 20 hours to assemble if you have only two people. I would recommend that you follow the instructions and take the time to sort and stack all of the pieces after you take them out of the box. It may seem like a waste of time up front, but it will save you time hunting for the right pieces in the long run.

Speaking of the instructions, I think Leisure Time Products could have done a better job with them. They are pretty hard to follow in places, and that just adds time to the assembly process. But overall we are very happy with the product, and Noah just loves the slide!

As I mentioned last month, we planned to install a solar water heater in our home this year. That plan has come to fruition. Installation was finalized last week, and we are now enjoying the warmth of the sun every time we take a bath or a shower. The work was performed by Missouri Solar Living (MSL), and overall I am pleased with the job they did installing our system. With the exception of one major issue we had with a local plumber that they subcontracted with (Finch Plumbing of Chesterfield, Missouri -- I would not recommend them for anything), everything went off without a hitch.

If you are thinking about installing a solar water heater, here are a couple of considerations. First, be prepared to have a crew of 2-3 workmen walking through your house for an entire weekend or more. They will need access to your basement, attic, and possibly the walls in between. Second, the system will likely take up more space in your basement than your existing water heater. MSL's system, for example, includes an 80-gallon electric water heater that is much bigger than our previous gas water heater. In addition, the system uses a 10-gallon drain-back tank that normally can be set on top of the water heater, but depending on the ceiling height in your basement, it may need to be placed somewhere else adjacent to it. This was the case with our installation, but MSL constructed a shelf for it to sit on so we didn't lose any floor space. Another consideration is the PEX (polyethylene) tubing that is typically used for these installations. While it is a flexible tubing, it cannot be made to turn tight corners, so allow for extra plumbing space in the vicinity of the water heater.

Lastly, don't forget about the IRS's tax credit for alternative energy systems -- to qualify, they have to be installed by December 31, 2008. I am anxious to see how much this will cut our monthly energy bills, and how efficient it will be in the winter. Stay tuned to this space for updates.

[Update: August 2, 2008 -- I perhaps spoke too soon when I said that things went off without a hitch. As it turned out, there were a couple of issues. There was a small roof leak that they had to come back out to repair. Also, when the county inspector checked their work, the connections to the water heater had to be completely redone (in copper) and an expansion tank added (which is a recent addition to the code). They once again subcontracted this work with Finch plumbing, and they did a decent job on the rework (although my basement carpet is covered with solder slag which they didn't bother cleaning up). I am confident that this has been a learning experience for all parties involved, so these mistakes will not likely be repeated.]

Look, I'm a software guy, okay? I've been banging around on computers since my first TRS-80 that my dad bought in 1982. I'm a software engineer for the world's largest aerospace company. And I'm here to tell you that as far as computer operating systems go, we as a civilization peaked with DOS. Microsoft Windows sucks. We all somehow intuitively know this, but we've been in denial for twenty years because until recently there just weren't that many alternatives.

I have a little bit of experience with Unix/Linux. I had a Silicon Graphics workstation on my desk for a few years. I played around with an early version of Red Hat. I even downloaded the original Ubuntu and loaded it on an old Toshiba laptop just for kicks. My opinion back then was that a lot of progress had been made, but that we still weren't there yet. The Windows-like GUIs were pretty good, but the application software support still wasn't there.

So recently, after seeing the slick Xandros load on my Eee, I decided to give Linux another shot and tried to install the latest versions of both Ubuntu and Kubuntu on a home server that I'm setting up. You know what? Linux sucks too, albeit for different reasons.

It's an extremely difficult operating system to configure right out of the box. There, I said it. We all know it's true, but everybody seems to be in denial about this too. But the complexity of Linux is a well known punchline, as you can see here. That video is several years old, but nothing has really changed. Despite the open source community's best efforts, Linux is still cumbersome, buggy, and frankly, not ready for primetime. Or at least not ready to expand their market much past the legions of nerds who have nothing better to do than "check your version dependencies."

Now I know that many of the Linux faithful will attack me for saying this, so I'm going to offer this little challenge. Point me to a Linux distro that 1) installs from a single disc (either CD or DVD), 2) includes both VNC and Samba right out of the box, and 3) won't take me to "sudo pico" hell trying to "config it" and I'll take back everything I just said. Any takers?

My new mini-laptop arrived a couple of days ago, and I must say that I am not disappointed. I have the 4GB Linux version. Configuring it to connect to my wireless network was a breeze (in fact, I'm typing this review on it), and it comes with Firefox (of course, I would prefer Opera) and the OpenOffice suite already installed, which is going to cover about 90% of what I need to do with it. My only complaint would be the size of a few of keys on the keyboard -- they aren't all the same -- specifically the colon and quote keys are slightly narrower than the rest, so I find myself hitting Enter a lot when I'm trying to hit the quote. I think this is something I may get used to, but for now it is mildly annoying.

It also comes with some other cool software pre-installed, including KStars (a kind of virtual planetarium), an 85,000 word dictionary, and Skype for internet telephony. Overall I am very pleased with this unit and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a ultra-portable machine for blogging or emailing.

With our little girl in the hospital for two weeks, we are trying to make the best of our time there. So we went out and bought a Nintendo Wii console and hooked it up to the TV in Josie's room. We also got a game we knew Noah would enjoy watching (if not actually playing yet) -- Cars - Mater National. It's a racing game based on the Pixar movie Cars.

So far, I have to say that I'm impressed with the Wii. We got the Sports version of the console that includes trial versions of tennis, baseball, bowling, boxing, and golf. It is really something to see how the console tracks the movement of the controllers in your hands and translates it into very realistic movements of your character in the game. I can also see why, after just a short time playing it, that so many people comment on the aerobic benefits of playing the Wii. It really gets your blood pumping.

It remains to be seen if we will outgrow this game platform, but right now I can see us using it as a family for a long time to come. Thanks Nintendo for making an otherwise unpleasant hospital stay a little more enjoyable!

Since we moved, and I am no longer close enough to work to ride my scooter everyday, I have been in need of a fuel-efficient second vehicle. Luckily, I had just such a vehicle. It was time to pull my 1985 Pontiac Fiero out of mothballs.

It has been parked in a barn since 1997, so it required a little work to get it running again. I spent the summer (with a few weekends of help from my dad) coating the inside of the fuel tank (with some great sealer from KBS Coatings), replacing the fuel pump, rear brake calipers, and the brake master cylinder (with parts from The Fiero Store). And after a tune-up and a new set of tires, she is ready to roll!

Do you think if I tell VH1 that I'm going to put their I Love The 80s logo on my hood, they'll help pay for my gas?

With the closing of all the Discovery stores in the St. Louis area, there are some great deals to be had as they liquidate their inventories. As a result, my geek cred got a boost with this cool Father's Day gift.

The display can be switched from Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) to straight binary, 12-hour or 24-hour format, and the blue LEDs have three different brightness settings. If you're looking for the perfect gift for your geek, find a Discovery store near you.

It was time to upgrade the old cell phone. I'm still as surprised as I was then that they haven't been forced to close the terrorist loophole and still allow you to maintain anonymous use of a cell phone. Wonders never cease.

The payment plan is still the same too. Pay as you go, and only $20 every 90 days. Since they use the Sprint network the coverage is decent.

I wandered into Best Buy and by chance this phone was on sale so I only paid $20 for it. It's not the highest quality phone -- it has that "plastic-y" feel to it -- but what do you expect for $20? It seems sturdy enough that it won't fall apart, and the buttons have a good tactile feel. The display is pretty impressive for its size too.

I had read some reviews critical of the battery life, but as far as I can tell, it uses the same battery as the Kyocera K9 and while not impressive, it is tolerable. I end up charging it about every three days -- and that's with turning the phone off every night.

It's a pretty solid phone, and a sweet service deal. I don't see how you can beat it, if you are the type of person that only uses their phone occasionally.

[Update: April 2008] The LCD on this phone is now growing a cancer of bright orange pixels that keep spreading right in the middle of the display. If this continues, the display will eventually be completely orange, and the phone will be useless. I guess it's good I only paid twenty bucks for it.

I finally took the plunge and upgraded from my 802.11b wireless router to the faster 802.11g. But this isn't really a review of this new piece of hardware, since it is virtually identical to the old one. This is more about the reason I chose to upgrade at this particular time. One word: craigslist.

I found this router on craigslist for $40. Which is quite a bit cheaper than anywhere else online, and even cheaper than Sam's. Sure it's used, but who cares? There aren't any moving parts to wear out, so as long as it works, it doesn't matter.

My own price point for this item was $40, and I had been checking on and off for quite a while (since before Christmas) and my patience was finally rewarded. Craigslist may be a better deal for the sellers than the buyers -- it's not eBay, where you are guaranteed to find any item on Earth -- but if you're not in a big hurry for something, it is usually a great deal. The sellers are all local, so you are going to get to see the item before you buy it, just like retail stores, and of course there is no shipping because you have to go pick it up.

The same holds true for many other items, furniture for instance. We've been lucky to find some great deals on used furniture, and it's all stuff that we probably couldn't afford to buy new, but if it's still in decent shape, it really doesn't matter that it's not brand new.

If you haven't checked out Craigslist yet, give it a shot. If you are patient, and have reasonable expectations about what you will get, you will be glad you did.

A while back I wrote about a really cool and addictive board game called Cathedral. Ever since I got the game, I thought it would be cool to make a copy of the game and its pieces using Legos. Well, the Lego folks have some software called Lego Designer that you can download from their web site. It is a CAD application that lets you build anything your heart desires using the your choice of any bricks that Lego makes.

It took me a while to get used to it, but the software has some popup help to get you started. Once I got rolling, it was really cool to be able to build the model and then spin it around in 3D and look at it. The best part is once you are done, you save your design and upload it to Lego's web site. You can then purchase the model you just made in a custom-printed box. If you add it to the gallery, then others who are browsing can buy your model too. My Cathedral game is here, if you're interested in seeing it.

It's actually cheaper to buy the real thing, so unless you're a fanatic of both Cathedral and Legos, I wouldn't recommend you spend your money, but definitely check out the software! [Update: you should also check out this guy's design, which is, I have to say, better looking than mine, but is probably more expensive to make.]

Touted in everything from TV commercials to the tagline emblazoned on the side of the product itself, this is the first vacuum that doesn't lose suction. But I had to see for myself how good it was.

We were ready to replace our old vacuum anyway, and after seeing what I've seen so far, I'm glad we did. Before we even took it out of the box, we vacuumed the living room rug with our old Hoover (with an almost-new bag in it). Then we vacuumed the exact same rug with the Dyson, and look at how much filth it was able to pick up! Keep in mind that this was after having just vacuumed with a a conventional model.

We're sold. Yes, they are expensive as hell, but they are apparently worth it -- you get what you pay for, right? And, I'm jazzed that we'll never have to buy another vacuum cleaner bag again, which, according to the Dyson literature, is a $500 million per year industry. No wonder the other vacuum manufacturers hate James Dyson so much.

If you want a vacuum that *really* picks up the dirt in your home, then you have no other choice. You have to choose a Dyson. Go buy one now! Hmmm, does Dyson have a referral program?

Since this was Dixie's first official Mother's Day, I wanted to find a special gift to commemorate it, and you won't find many gifts more unique than a pirolette from TurnYourHead.com.

You send them a profile photo of a person, in our case it was our precious little Noah, and they create a special jig for their lathe and literally turn your head into a stunning work of art. Inspired by the classic optical illusion of a vase that appears to be two faces nearly touching noses, a pirolette is a completely original way to capture a cherished moment in time.

After a great deal of research into the most recent crop of digital SLRs, my wife settled on this Olympus model when it was time to upgrade our digital camera. She has always wanted a digital SLR and this is a fine camera, in my opinion.

I'm impressed not only with the quality of the pictures it takes, but the manufacturing as well. I've seen a number of cameras out there that despite a hefty price tag still feel like you bought them out of a vending machine -- cheap plastic construction, etc. -- but this camera seems durable and has a good feel in your hands. The picture quality speaks for itself. Click the photo of our little boy to see more examples:

As a public service, I'm providing these instructions to anyone who might need them. Since February of this year, I've been using the TiVoToGo capability to transfer shows from my TiVo unit to my PC and then archiving these shows to DVD. It took me several weeks of trial and error, while scouring the 'net for instructions, before I reached a point where I could do this reliably. To save others the pain I've gone through, I decided to compile this step-by-step list. I may not be the first to do so (in fact, I'm sure I'm not), but I hope this will help those who are perhaps just getting started.

First, a short disclaimer. I offer no warranties. This combination of free software works for me, it may not be the greatest, nor the latest, software combo that works, but I am reluctant to invest any more of my time in tweaking and refining a process that reliably works for me.

Also, I am assuming that you already have TiVoToGo configured and are able to transfer .TiVo files to your PC. If you are unsure about how to do this, well, that's what Google is for, right? But I'll get you started. So, without further ado, download the software you will need:

1. GraphEdit
2. Filters
3. TyTools

There is no fancy install, just download each of these zip files and unzip them into their own folders. There is a text file in the filters.zip that explains how to install the filters on your system.

GraphEdit

Once you have everything installed, run GraphEdit.exe. You will use this utility to remove the password from the .TiVo files and convert them to plain old .mpg files. Do the following:

1. Drag .TiVo file into Graphedit
2. Delete last few filters in the chain except Moonlight-Elecard MPEG2 Demuxer
3. Add Moonlight M71 Muxer (Ctrl-F -> DirectShow -> double-click Moonlight M71)
4. Right-click on M71, Filter Properties...
5. Double-click on Transport Stream and change it to Program Stream
6. Double-click on Compatibility and change it to DVD
7. Add Input to Program (in the left pane) by right-clicking and selecting Create Stream
8. Save your changes and then hit the Refresh button in GraphEdit (the circular arrows). This will make the new input pin visible on the graph.
9. Join Audio pin to Input1 pin
10. Add Moonlight DumpPos filter (Ctrl-F -> DirectShow -> double-click Moonlight DumpPos)
11. Select an output file name (make sure to include an .mpg extension)
12. Join M71 Out pin to Input pin
13. Now press Play and wait a few minutes. On my P4 3GHz machine, an hour show typically takes less than five minutes to process. YMMV.

Occasionally, I've had GraphEdit hang on me before it finished writing the output file. You will know when this happens because there should be almost constant hard drive activity when you press Play. If it stops for more than a second or two, and the output file ceases to grow, GraphEdit is hung. Just hit the Stop button, delete the output file, and hit Play again.

TyTool

Once you have your shows converted to .mpg files (and assuming the combined sizes of those files is less than the capacity of your DVD -- 4.7GB for single-layer media), you are ready create the VOB files and build a DVD. Run TyTool9r18.exe and do the following:

1. File -> Make Key file
2. Double-click each of the .mpg files you want to process to add them to the queue, then click the Process button
3. If you want to edit out commercials, or any other fluff before you burn your DVD, select File -> Edit Key file. This is the most complicated and time-consuming step of the entire process. If you don't care about the commercials, skip it.
4. Scan through the video (there is no audio provided, unfortunately) with the < and > buttons. You define a cut with the [ and ] buttons and click Add to add it to the cut list.
5. When all of your cuts are defined, select File -> Save Cut List and then exit the editor.
6. File -> Multiplex files (and wait a while)
7. File -> VOB Mux files (and wait a while)
8. File -> Create IFO Files/Dirs
9. Click a menu item in the top-right pane. Set the Menu Item below to a .vob file in the pulldown menu and click the "Set Item" button. The text you type there is the text that will appear in the DVD menu. Repeat this for each menu item you wish to include.
10. select a file to use as the menu background
11. Hit the Preview button at any time to see what your DVD menu is going to look like.
12. When you're satisfied with your creation, press Make IFO (and wait a while).

When you see the popup window that says "DVD Created," you will find AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders have been created for you. Use your favorite burning software to burn these onto a DVD. If you are looking for a free burner, I had some limited success with CDBurnerXP Pro, but I eventually broke down and went with Nero for better reliability.

If you have any technical problems that you can't figure out, I can't guarantee that I will have the time or the inclination to help you debug them, but contact me and I'll see what I can do.

[Update Nov 20, 2007] I bought a software package called VideoReDo and it's the best $50 I ever spent. I have been using it for several months now, so I feel confident in recommending it. It eliminates the need for the GraphEdit portion of the process above because it removes the TiVo encryption for you and outputs a straight .mpg file. It also has sound (something TyTool doesn't offer). Its best feature by far, however, is the Ad Detective that automatically removes commercials from a recording. I still use TyTool for steps 7-12 above, but I'm hooked on VideoReDo. Try it, you'll like it!

My homebrew PC had finally gotten to the point where I couldn't do anything without it locking up, rebooting, or blue-screening. I got tired of trying to debug whatever hardware conflict(s) was causing it, so I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new PC. The biggest benefit to buying a completely assembled PC is that you can assume the hardware has undergone some testing to eliminate the ghosts in the machine. The biggest drawback is that PC manufacturers today typically design their boxes in a proprietary fashion, thus forcing you to go through them for any eventual upgrades.

The Dell Dimension 8400 that I got is a 3.0GHz machine which is noticeably faster than my previous 2.4GHz box, and it is considerably quieter. Of course, I had six cooling fans in my homemade PC -- overkill, I know, but those fans with the LEDs in them are so cool! (Or at least they were two years ago when I built the thing.)

So far, so good. The Dell doesn't suffer from the proprietary hardware problem as bad as some PCs I've owned in the past, and it is able to do everything I need it to -- mainly editing and encoding MPEG-2 video for DVDs. The Philips DVD-burner in it is lightning fast too. And it plays Doom 3 without crashing every 15 minutes!

I think I'll keep it.

Well, I didn't get it installed in time to watch the Super Bowl commercials, but it's pretty cool just the same. We went with the InFocus ScreenPlay 4805 model because all of the online reviews were great, and Sam's had it for under $1200. Installation was something of a pain, since we decided to move all of our components into the closet, but the 84-inch diagonal image is awesome!

Sure, you could pay $200 for this trendy spice rack (as seen on Oprah), or you could make your own instead. Which is what we did. For about $40 in parts from Specialty Bottle and K&J Magnetics (you'll want at least two magnets per tin, more for heavier spices), we have even more storage capacity and it looks über-cool on our 'fridge.

[Update: Apr 30, 2009] We upgraded our spice rack so it no longer hangs on the 'fridge.

I'm very surprised, with our current hyper-sensitivity to all things terrorist, that Virgin Mobile is allowed by law to provide anonymous cell phone service in this country. But they do. And I'm glad. I probably wouldn't own a cell phone otherwise.

Furthermore, you aren't required to sign any long-term contract for service -- it is strictly pay-as-you-go. There are a ton of cool extras available from their web site too (sold separately, of course), like this hilarious voicemail message for $3.

At a minimum rate of only $20 every 90 days, if you are a person who only carries a cell for emergencies, it is hard to go wrong with this phone plan.

Everyone is talking about it. TV shows such as The King of Queens and Sex and the City have devoted entire episodes to it. Now I have one, and I see what all the hype is about.

TiVo certainly has a lot of benefits, although I see a few drawbacks as well. Saying goodbye to the hassles of a VCR -- programming it, shuffling around videotapes, forgetting what you taped and taping over "important" stuff that your spouse taped -- is certainly a plus. Pausing live TV with TiVo's built in 30-minute buffer is very cool too.

However, I'm a little disappointed with the processing speed of the latest Series 2 unit (the one with the night light). Paging up and down through the guide is simply painful, waiting for it to load data and render each page.

And, if your New Year's resolution this year is to watch less television, this is not the gadget for you. Not only does TiVo make it terribly easy to record your favorite shows (an entire season's worth, if you like), but it also incessantly records other shows that it thinks you might like to watch (some of which you actually would), so you will most likely find yourself watching *more* TV than you ever have before.

My new Buffalo LinkStation arrived the other day from TigerDirect. As advertised, setup took just a couple of minutes and I had 120GB of extra storage available on my home network. But, as PC Magazine noted, access to the drive is rather slow.

This is compounded by the fact that my network is wireless (802.11b). I started transferring a backup folder with about 5.5GB of data and two hours later it was just over halfway done. I would not recommend this drive to anyone with a wireless network. So, I decided to give up the network connectivity, and instead bought an external USB drive.

Maxtor's 200GB OneTouch USB/Firewire drive is a great piece of gear. It is extremely fast in transferring too -- my 5.5GB of data copied in 5 or 10 minutes. The OneTouch functionality seems like it would be a good idea too, although I haven't yet installed the backup software to take advantage of the cool blue button on the front of the drive.

A friend of mine reminded me today of the thing that fat chicks and mopeds have in common: they're both fun to ride until your friends see you. Well, that may be true, but it doesn't change the fact that this bad boy is *fun* to ride! And there's no shame in getting 50mpg on a vehicle that I don't have to pay license fees or insurance on! I figure this thing will pay for itself in about two years.

I ordered it from Extreme Scooters and they were kind enough to email me some simple startup instructions, which is good because the manual that comes with it reads like Chinese. Oh wait, that's because it *is* Chinese.

A word of warning: some assembly is required. I had a little bit of trouble putting the front wheel on this thing. I'm sure my neighbors had fun watching me try to put it together by myself. At one point I closed the garage door in embarrassment.

I looked at probably dozens of different scooters, and settled on this one for a number of reasons, but the main ones were price (roughly $1000+shipping), 4-stroke engine (no messing with mixing oil with the fuel), and disc brakes. It also has a lot of extras -- electric start, theft-deterrent system with remote, beaucoup storage under the seat (although it's still not big enough for *my* helmet -- my head's too big I guess).

If you are lucky enough to live within a couple of miles of work, and are looking for an inexpensive means for getting back and forth, the 50QT-9 is a great way to go.

We are pretty pleased with our choice of a new car. We also test drove Chrysler's PT Cruiser and the new Scion xB, but ultimately it was the great reviews, the standard options and Honda's reputation that swayed our opinion.

It's funny because a year or so ago when I saw the first Element on the highway, and thought it was about the ugliest vehicle I had ever seen, if you had told me that one day I would not only own one, but be enthusiastic about that ownership, I would have said you were crazy.

So far so good. Stay tuned to this space for more...

The latest addition to the Gadget Department is Creative's Muvo Slim MP3 player. It rocks! My Rhomba shot craps on me after about 6 months of use, and I was pleasantly surprised that the vendor, newegg.com, was willing to replace it. They are no longer carrying the Rhomba (since apparently they've had a lot of returns of that model), but they offered to replace it with a comparable unit.

I can't really say that it's comparable -- since the Muvo Slim is far and away better than the Rhomba was -- it feels like an upgrade. The Rhomba always claimed to also function as a thumb drive but that was really impossible with its proprietary USB dongle. The Muvo Slim uses the industry standard small USB connector, so it is at least usable as a thumb drive. The Muvo Slim's battery (Li Ion) is removable, and therefore replaceable when it finally gives up the ghost, unlike the Rhomba, and it also seems to last longer on a charge.

The controls seem to be a little more intuitive, and the menus are more extensive but less cumbersome to navigate than the Rhomba was. The desktop software (Creative's MediaSource) is identical, so no learning curve, or annoying conversion of files to suffer through. Combine all of this with the sleek 7mm thick profile, and the snug-fitting case with the cool magnetic closure, and this baby is quite a bit better than the Rhomba.

Just in time to enjoy the cool evenings of spring and early summer, we got a great deal on this five-person hot tub. If you are in the St. Louis area, and looking for a great deal, check out St. Louis Spa Warehouse. They specialize in refurbishing hot tubs so they are like new again, and you can save at least 50% buying a used one.

For us it was some serious work to put it in (here is a good spa wiring diagram), but the first time you lay down in it you know it was all worth it. And, as a sort of gadget-within-a-gadget, the light we purchased for the bottom of the tub is about a 17 on the Cool-O-Meter®. Check out ColorGlo Products to see yet another cool use for LEDs.

For Christmas my wonderful wife upgraded my old Handspring Visor Deluxe to a shiny new Palm Tungsten C. This gadget is definitely a 10 on the Cool-O-Meter ®. With a high-res color display, and built-in Wi-Fi connection and web browser, this one is hard to beat on features. I wouldn't recommend that you get in the habit of carrying it in your back pocket -- the case is not very rigid, and the glass screen is prone to cracking, and it will cost you $125 for Palm to repair it.

What's In Your Palm?

If you're like me, you've invested quite a bit of time looking for good applications and other cool stuff to load onto your Palm OS device. So you can now enjoy the fruits of my labors and if you see something here that you like, please feel free to download it for yourself. All of the packages provided here are freeware, most of which I got from PalmGear.com.

BibleR350d312.zip - Bible Reader - version 3.5 installation for Palm OS5.

FileZ.zip - Palm OS file browser

Khronos.zip - Digital stopwatch

TimeCopy1.4.zip - HotSync conduit that keeps your Palm's clock synced with your desktop.

palmbio.zip - Biorhythm plotter

conv21.zip - Scientific Unit Converter

ChemTable205.zip - Periodic Table of the Elements

trivopaedia12.zip - Trivopaedia - vast collection of trivial knowledge

PocketDivxEncoder - This utility is awesome! It uses the FFMPEG encoder to convert just about any video you have to MPEG-4. The compression rate is amazing. I can rip a 90 minute movie from DVD, and this will convert it to a 150MB AVI file! Which means I can hold five or six full-length movies on my 1GB SD card!

Once you've committed to a broadband Internet connection, if you intend to share the connection on more than one computer in your home, you are faced with a choice. Wired or wireless network? If you share my aversion to running cables, it's a simple decision. Plus, wireless networks are just plain cool. I got this Linksys BEFW11S4 off of ebay for just under $80.

The latest promotional deal from SBC/Yahoo offered $29.95/month for the first 12 months, and was enough to get me to finally abandon dialup. However, they achieve this great price by subsidizing their service with a dizzying array of detestable adware. If you're like me, you want the speed of DSL without the hassle of all the popups, desktop icons, and spyware of the Yahoo software.

Don't despair, there is a way around it. Don't even take the enclosed CD out of the package!! If you're using a router, you won't need it at all. Register your new DSL account at SBC's secret web site. Okay, maybe it's not a secret, but Yahoo sure doesn't want you to know that it's this easy because then they can't install that big ol' steaming pile of, um, software on your machine. First, accept the license agreement, then enter your phone number, and you will be allowed to select your own username and password. When you get the confirmation screen, close your browser and enter the username/password into your router. Happy surfing!

As I upgrade my PC, piece by piece, my latest purchase is an HP Illuminated Multimedia keyboard. I can't say that I'm completely thrilled with it. The vendor that I purchased it from, Logisys Computer did not include any driver software, and has lousy customer support. After spending hours scouring the net, I was finally made aware of one by a visitor to my site. So, if you have one of these keyboards, HP Model #SK-2565, Part #5185-2027, here is a driver that works perfectly (for Windows XP -- I haven't tested it with other operating systems). Previous to being told about this driver, I had links on this page to two other files (hp2506gn.zip and HPIKB.zip). If you came here looking for one of them, they are here.

My ongoing hobby of wine collecting had outgrown my refrigerator, so I had to create a new home for my collection. Some lumber, an Avanti wine refrigerator, and some cool rope lights from Linens 'n Things are all it took to convert the space under the stairs into a cool wine cellar.

While in Italy, we visited a quaint little hilltop town called San Gimignano. As a souvenir of our visit there, I bought a desktop fountain made of Italian marble and had it shipped home. The stone is simply beautiful, and the movement of the sphere on top of a cushion of water is mesmerizing.

My wonderful girlfriend Dixie bestowed upon me the most enchanting gift for St. Valentine's Day. It is an exquisite pocketwatch made by Van Cort Instruments that not only provides the time but the current phase of the moon. She also had a short passage engraved on the back of the watch, commemorating a recent stargazing outing. Needless to say, it is my most prized possession.